Are Lions fans willing to sacrifice this season to get rid of Matt Patricia?

Matt Patricia has done little to keep his job

As the debate between my friends heated up over whether Matt Patricia should be kicked to the curb right now or not, I intervened and asked the proponent of sending Patricia packing if he would be willing to sacrifice this season to see Sheila Ford Hamp pink slip both Bob Quinn and Matt Patricia.

He said he would have embraced a winless season if that meant Sheila would be in the market for a new general manager and head coach. At this point, 1-15 will suffice if it will get the job done.

I then asked my other friend who was encouraged by last week’s win if he was ready to back Matt Patricia now. He said that while he agreed that last week’s game was encouraging, he still needs to see what happens. I asked him what the minimum number of wins was to keep Matt Patricia. He said nine. Anything less, then after the season it’s time to clean house.

The truth is that the first two seasons of Matt Patricia’s tenure did little to earn his opportunity to still be at the helm this year. If the offense hadn’t improved under Darrell Bevell last season Patricia would have more than likely been gone.

Yet he is back and I am hearing more and more Lions fans that either want the plug pulled or are very trepidatious that this will work out. In the end, they all lead to the same result; will Sheila Ford Hamp fire Matt Patricia when the season is over?

We all need to remember that former owner William Clay Ford waited until the end of the Lions 0-16 season in 2008 to send Rod Marinelli packing. Sheila certainly has the prerogative to send Patricia packing sooner, but I would be surprised if an in-season change was made.

At the moment, Matt Patricia’s Lions have lost 11 out of the last 12 games and had a streak of four straight contests they lost after having double-digit leads, not to mention he has an overall record of 10-24-1. Even in the midst of the unannounced overhaul Patricia and Quinn have been doing, this is unacceptable.

Last week’s win showed some progress from Patricia as a head coach being flexible in order to get a victory. However, that adjustment shouldn’t take until the third season at the reigns to happen. Yet the rest of the season is still stretched out before the Lions and a win over the New Orleans Saints would go a long way towards helping his cause with Sheila going into the bye week.

Many fans may be willing to sacrifice this season to see Matt Patricia gone, but much like a suspense story or movie, outside of another absolute collapse, we’ll probably have to wait until the end to see what happens.